Remember the Phoenix Suns, not for how they lost but for how they grew

By Martin Rogers
FOX Sports Columnist

The day after the NBA Finals — heck, the day after any decisive finale to any championship season in sports — is the time when we talk about the winners.

That’s just how it works. The victor gets the spoils, all of them. The trophy, the confetti, the glory, the legacy piece, the headline on the résumé, the parade, the talk shows and the whole nine yards.

That’s how it goes in sports and, frankly, how it goes in American life. Second place might as well not exist.

Except that it does exist, and it hurts. The whole point of sports is winning, which is why we celebrate the winners. And that’s all well and good, except that sometimes winning isn’t a zero-sum equation.

At the end of seven months of an inspirational journey, the Phoenix Suns were defeated in the NBA Finals, outdueled over six gripping games by the Milwaukee Bucks and their mighty leader, Giannis Antetokounmpo, who didn’t just step into his defining moment … he leaped.

The Suns lost the Finals, but the four games in which an impossible dream narrowly slipped away were about the only thing they lost. This season, the team that finished second was a winner, too, emphatically and comprehensively, just not quite as much as the group that gets to raise the banner.

Which is why this column is going to talk about the Suns today. Call me contrarian, but there is something that appeals about writing on a team that everyone else has already forgotten. The Bucks, and Antetokounmpo, deserve every bit of acclaim, and if anyone tries to tell you that there’s a better player on the planet right now than the Greek Freak, forget politeness and just tell them they’re flat-out wrong.

There’ll be enough stories written about the Milwaukee Bucks today, tomorrow and all through the summer. No one will have a lot to say about the Suns, the team that could have been in that exalted spot this morning, if things had gone just fractionally different over the past couple of weeks.

If you try to insist that the Suns are not worthy of some words of reflection and sentiment because they lost, I’ll stand toe-to-toe and argue my case that they do. For this was a tour de force of a campaign that landed just short of a reimagined goal but still surged way beyond all the other, more realistic targets that once seemed appropriate.

The Suns came from nowhere and nearly got it all. Considered by many to be a failed franchise incapable of doing anything right, Phoenix changed the narrative and strived and battled, and did it with courage and skill and incredibly smart basketball.

The Suns played teams with supposedly more ability, power and experience and made use of what they had, which was so close to being sufficient but wasn’t quite enough, not against a physical phenomenon ⁠— who might dominate the league for years ⁠— and his outstanding surrounding crew.

Phoenix — who knew? — had a level of talent greater than anyone suspected and maximized it. Chris Paul pieced together the best season of his career, excelling as a leader and a floor general, marshaling a young core and pulling more from them than they knew was possible.

Paul is 36 now, and he could choose to be done, strolling off into retirement or to do something else, such as form a Los Angeles Lakers partnership with his old pal LeBron James. Don’t count on it. Even after coming out on the wrong end against Milwaukee, 105-98 Tuesday and 4-2 overall, he sounded like he has found where he’s supposed to be, despite how much this stings.

"Right now, you're just trying to figure out what you could have done more," Paul told reporters. "It's tough. Great group of guys, hell of a season, but this one is going to hurt for a while."

The Suns shape up well moving forward. Who knows how good Devin Booker can turn out to be, but the rapidly improving guard is already one of the league’s most impactful players. Deandre Ayton is a big man who embodies the best of old-school and new-age center play, a laidback dude who has found his inner fire. And Paul is a point guard who’s fun and easy to play against, said no one.

All this doesn’t mean the Suns will be back here, this close to a title, which is why their supporters are nursing an added wound right now. This was a magical campaign, so unexpected and refreshing. With such occasions, especially for a team that had just one winning season in the previous decade, you take what you can get. However, it was also a rare opportunity, a big one and maybe a unique one.

Perhaps even headier times await. But quite possibly, they don’t, not at this level. It took a supreme feat of consistency to get to 51-21 and a masterpiece in rising to the occasion to get by the Lakers, sweep the Denver Nuggets and out-punch the LA Clippers.

The NBA’s Western Conference is still wild, though, and big-name hunters are already sharpening their teeth ahead of next season.

"The final buzzer was a vicious alarm clock," the Arizona Republic’s Dan Bickley wrote. "Wake up, Phoenix. The dream is over.

"Never forget how this team took us on the ride of our lives. Raise a glass and remember them well."

They’ll be remembered on their own doorstep, but as time ticks on, in the wider realm, thoughts of the 2020-21 Suns will fade. That process has started already. It is Giannis’ world right now, and the Bucks’ party is in full flow.

"The only person who didn’t win was Jeff Bezos," FS1’s Kevin Wildes joked on "First Things First." "He went to space, and Giannis took the inspiration narrative after 12 hours."

The Suns, already a footnote. That’s life. The least we can do is think of them for a little longer. There is only enough bandwidth to crown one champion, but when it comes to the Suns’ unexpected push, they deserve better than to be shut out of the tale altogether.

They were brave enough to try and good enough to get to the edge. There’s a type of glory in that. Not enough to quell the pain, sure, but something to keep the head held high.

Martin Rogers is a columnist for FOX Sports and the author of the FOX Sports Insider Newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.